Why A Top Dietitian Recommends Coconut Oil For Constipation In Kids
If youve got a constipated kiddo, youll do anything you can to help them feel better. Youve probably heard about using coconut oil for constipation, and may not be sure about why, or even how to get it into your child.
In this article, youll learn about coconut oil, how it can help constipation, and how to use it.
Can Coconut Oil Treat Dogs With Constipation
Because of coconut oils smoothing of the digestive tract, and its anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties, coconut oil is considered beneficial for dogs with constipation.
If your dog has constipation, achieving optimal gut health in your dog may be possible by including coconut oil in their diet. Here is a dog food with coconut oil that we recommend.
You should always consult with a veterinarian if you believe your has digestive pain. However, the scientific research to date positively indicates coconut oil may ease and prevent constipation in dogs.
For Cats Teeth And Gum Disease
Some, but not all, cats seem to suffer from bad teeth which is odd as they dont eat sweet stuff like usBut part of the problem seems to originate with the gums. A lack of brushing, tartar control and a mouth that has more germs than a sewer can make problems for gums that can then become inflamed, retreat, suffer pocketing and lead to tooth loss.
It has been suggested that using coconut oil, with all its wonderful properties, might offer a solution, particularly to cats that are just too sensitive to have you messing about with a brush in their mouths. The anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial qualities of coconut oil have led some to suggest that topical use on the gums and in the mouth might help kitty with sore gums.
There is good evidence that using coconut oil in your mouth can have quite an impact on the number of bacteria able to survive in the mouth, can reduce gum inflammation, improve breath odor and reduce cavities in humans. Now getting your cat to gargle coconut oil could be pushing it but a little oil spread over the gums might do just the trick.
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What Snacks Can Help Constipation
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Try making your own oatmeal or energy bars with porridge oats as the base, adding dates and maybe banana for sweetness and nuts and seeds for more fibre.
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Eating a ripened pear can really help as it contains sorbitol, as mentioned above.
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Having some dried fruit at hand instead of eating biscuits.
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Make you own biscuits with oats and seeds and dried fruits
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A warm drink can help stimulate the intestine to move. It doesnt have to be coffee.
Coconut Oil For Constipation: How To Apply It And Alternatives With Coconut
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Before entering the main topic we will talk a little about the fruit, considering that you should know how its composition is and how it can be a slimming ingredient when including it in your meals and drinks and after this we will address everything we want to know about coconut oil for constipation.
Although it has multiple benefits and different uses, because everything is used from this fruit, its meat, its water and the oil that favors the skin and other health conditions, such as constipation, a condition suffered by many but of which few speak, if you want to normalize your intestine, do not miss this article.
Index
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High In Saturated Fat
One tablespoon of coconut oil contains 11.2 grams of saturated fat, per the USDA, which is the primary drawback of eating this oil.
The American Heart Association recommends getting no more than 5 to 6 percent of your calories from saturated fat, which equates to about 120 calories of saturated fat per day for a 2,000-calorie diet. The AHA does ânotâ make exceptions for the MCT fats found in coconut oil.
Replacing foods that are high in saturated fat with healthier options can help lower blood cholesterol levels, per the AHA. That means replacing tropical oils like coconut oil or palm oil with healthier sources like olive oil.
Benefits Of Coconut Oil And How To Use It To Cure Constipation
Newscrab DeskteamBenefits of Coconut Oil: Image
Use this 1 oil regularly, you will get rid of chronic constipation in a pinch
Benefits of Coconut Oil: There are many benefits of coconut oil on health. Not only this, but you can also get rid of chronic constipation with this oil. Want to know how then read here…
Benefits of Coconut Oil: You must have used coconut oil to make your hair strong, thick, and black. Some people also cook food in this oil, but the benefits of this oil do not end here. Do you know that coconut oil can also remove the problem of chronic constipation? Yes, this oil helps in loosening the stool. There are some elements present in this oil, which help stimulate the cells of the digestive system, colon. If you also have the problem of constipation, then using coconut oil can get rid of this problem.
Coconut oil to relieve constipation
Coconut oil has a laxative effect. As blogger Hybrid Rasta Mama claims, coconut oil can help relieve constipation, as it is fibrous and it cleanses the colon very effectively. Coconut oil can boost metabolism, which makes food move easily in the body. Due to this, the stool becomes soft and easily passed out of the body. By the way, in many cases, this oil can also increase constipation or diarrhea. However, no study has been done on how much truth is there in the fact that the problem of constipation can be reduced by the consumption of coconut oil.
How to include coconut oil in the diet
Other remedies for constipation
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Treating Cats Constipation And Upset Stomach
Our friend, lauric acid is the culprit at work here, again! It is a medium-chain fatty acid and it is believed that such fatty acids can have a mild laxative effect which means coconut oil can be useful for treating cat constipation.
Now, if you have a minor stomach upset or constipation it is believed that a dose of these fatty acids can help you shift your metabolism up a gear and bring the situation to a resolution in a quicker fashion by stimulating the bowels.
The science isnt 100% on this effect, although there is some limited scientific evidence of the effect of these fats on metabolism and the effect on the bowel.
Apply orally via the nose trick or by directly adding to food and you should hope to get a lubricated system, a stimulated bowel and relief from constipation or if all else fails a nice shiny coat as a result!
What Causes Constipation
Constipation has many possible causes. This can make it difficult to find out whats causing your particular case of it. The cause can be as simple and easily fixed as a poor diet or as serious as colon cancer.
More benign causes of constipation include a low-fiber diet, poor hydration, and a lack of regular exercise. Sedatives and medications that lower blood pressure may also cause constipation.
Underlying medical conditions can also cause constipation. Parkinsons disease and multiple sclerosis both count constipation among their list of health complications. In many cases, serious constipation is related to a problem in the digestive tract. For example, an anal fissure or a narrowing of the colon can cause constipation.
Neurological problems that specifically affect the nerves around the colon and rectum, as well as pelvic muscle problems, can also cause constipation.
Olive oil is considered a healthy fat because it contains primarily monounsaturated fats. The body uses these fats to improve cardiovascular health. Its also better for weight loss than saturated fats or trans fats, which can contribute to weight gain and other problems.
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/4how The Oil Functions
Coconut oil lubricates the intestine that helps in easy movement of the body, preventing constipation. As per another claim, coconut oil may increase metabolism, which in turn removes excess waste from the body and prevents constipation. However, not many studies have been carried out to establish a clear link between constipation and coconut oil intake.
Has No Special Benefits For People With Type O Blood
In 1996, Peter D’Adamo published âEat Right for Your Typeâ, a book based on the idea that people with different blood types thrive on different kinds of diets. If you ask D’Adamo, coconut oil is good for blood group O. However, there’s no real scientific evidence to support his claims.
Researchers have looked into the Blood Type Diet and found that while many people do report benefits when following the diet, it’s unrelated to their blood type and, instead, is a result of incorporating new healthy dietary and lifestyle changes.
Researchers concluded that no evidence currently exists to validate the purported health benefits of blood type diets in a May 2013 systematic review in the âThe American Journal of Clinical Nutritionâ.
Following the Blood Type Diet could improve certain health markers like triglycerides, insulin levels and cholesterol, but it’s unrelated to blood type, per a January 2014 review in âPLOS Oneâ.
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What If Virgin Coconut Oil’s Laxative Effect Doesn’t Work On You
Virgin coconut oil is good at relieving constipation, no doubt. But that’s provided your bowels are able to respond to the stimulating laxative properties of the unrefined coconut oil.
If your bowels don’t respond well to the laxative effect of virgin coconut oil each and every time you use it, such that it worked previously but not this time, on and off. That means your bowels could have gone into a severe disorder and lost the fundamental function to clean themselves.
This could happen especially if you’ve been using lots of laxatives, enemas or drugs for treating constipation all this while.
In that case, what you seriously need now is to focus on fixing your bowel health and quickly get your bowels back in action.
Once you reclaim your bowel health, having one bowel movement per day, every day will become like a walk in the park. Don’t you long for that?
In fact, if your bowels are in optimally good health, you should be able to poop even 3 times a day without much effort, like this:
Taking the morning bowel movement for instance, your poop should include 20% from last night dinner and 80% from yesterday lunch.
Then your afternoon poop should come from last night dinner and this morning breakfast .
Lastly, your evening poop should comprise 80% of breakfast and 20% of lunch from today.
What goes into your mouth first will come out of your bottom first first in, first out.
Mcfa The Fuel That Stimulates Your Bowels
How MCFAs work to relieve constipation is that they serve as immediate fuel to stimulate intestinal muscles. It’s the contraction and relaxation of intestinal muscles that push your stool forward.
In essence, MCFA helps to quickly “awaken” your sluggish bowels.
When your bowels become more active and hardworking, less water from your stool will get absorbed. Which means, your stool now gets to retain more water and becomes softer. And so, it can wriggle faster in your intestines.
But the potent laxative effect of virgin coconut oil doesn’t stop there. It goes on to soften your stool further to the extent your stool can slip through your intestines with ease. And that calls for the help of glycerol.
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Olive Oil Vs Coconut Oil Which Is Better At Relieving Your Constipation
Take olive oil for instance. It can make you poop and help to alleviate constipation too. But it may take a bit longer for the laxative effect to kick in. Why?
That’s because olive oil comprises solely long-chain triglycerides . They’re larger in size and hence, require more time for our body to break them down into individual units long-chain fatty acids and glycerols.
Another reason for the relatively slower laxative effect from olive oil is that, its LCFAs do not convert to energy well. This is because our body finds it more resource-intensive to transform the longer LCFAs into energy than the shorter MCFAs.
Which is why LCFAs often end up in your fat reserve for the most part.
Eventually, only some glycerols are slogging to help you poop if you use olive oil instead of coconut oil. Not a bad natural laxative though, if you prefer olive oil to coconut oil to help with your constipation.
However, if you’ve got the better coconut oil for faster constipation relief, why use olive oil?
How Fast Does Virgin Coconut Oil Work For Constipation
If you’re taking 2 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil with a meal, you should feel the urge to poop within 2 hours.
However, don’t just slouch on the couch and wait for the laxative effect of virgin coconut oil to kick in. Keep yourself active and move about. Like, do some household chores or light exercises, stretching yoga poses or take a stroll.
Staying active helps to expedite the digestion of virgin coconut oil into its laxative compounds. Your bowel movement might just arrive in less than an hour.
Also, try to keep calm and relaxed. Feeling emotionally stressed, depressed or tense etc can stiffen your intestinal muscles, making them difficult to push your stool forward.
In other words, negative emotions can work against the positive laxative effect of virgin coconut oil. So, keep your negative emotions in check if you want quick relief for constipation with virgin coconut oil.
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How Does Coconut Oil Ease Constipation
There havent been enough studies on coconut oil and constipation for doctors to agree that coconut oil eases constipation. The best reason scientists have at this point for why coconut oil seems to help people suffering from constipation is that it contains a high number of medium-chain fatty acids , which stimulate bowel movements.
Does Virgin Coconut Oil Work Well As A Suppository Or Enema
Virgin coconut oil needs to get digested and split into glycerols and MCFAs to produce laxative effect and cause bowel movement. Putting virgin coconut oil up your bottom may not break it down into the bowel-stimulating compounds.
However, virgin coconut oil suppository or enema should work to some extent as it could lubricate your colon walls and help you poop more easily. But stools that are stuck somewhere in the colon where the oil can’t reach may not slip out.
As said before, virgin coconut oil works best at relieving constipation upon consumption. You can try using both ways together eat and inject into your bottom.
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Why Is Virgin Coconut Oil So Good For Constipation
Virgin coconut oil is good for constipation because it contains medium-chain triglycerides that help to make you poop with ease.
In fact, it’s specifically the medium-chain fatty acids and glycerols from MCTs that work to relieve your constipation. How?
Having sluggish bowels is the most common cause of constipation. When your bowels are sluggish, your stool will move slower through the intestines. One of the key functions of intestines is to absorb water from the food we eat.
Hence, the slower your stool moves, the more water from the stool will get absorbed into your body. This invariably leaves behind a stool that’s dry and hard, and get stuck in your bowels. That’s why you cannot poop no matter how many gallons of water you’ve guzzled.
What Is Constipation And What Symptoms Might You Have
When you are constipated your bowel motion, also known as your stool, is hard and dry and difficult to pass.
You may also pass a bowel motion less often, so instead of daily it could be every other day or even every second day.
For some people passing a bowel motion every other day is normal for them, but they usually say that the stool is normal i.e. not hard or difficult to pass.
When you are constipated the hard stool can cause pain in the rectum as you try to pass it and this leads to straining to pass a bowel motion, which often leads to the formation of varicose veins in the rectum, also known as haemorrhoids. When children experience pain with constipation, they usually then avoid trying to go to the toilet as they know it will be painful. Of course this makes things worse and can lead to a very large stool that is even more difficult to pass. What can happen it the rectum and lower intestine can gradually become bigger as they try to accommodate the large stool. You can probably see what happens next, the widened intestine or rectum then allows a bigger stool to form which is even more difficult to pass! Not very nice for children.
Constipation can also cause little pouches to form along the intestine which are known as diverticula. Later in life they can become irritated and sometimes infected as stool and bits of harder undigested food collect there where they should be passed out of the bowel.
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Benefits Of Coconut Oil For Cats
Coconut oil is enjoying a burst of popularity thanks to its recognition as a superfood. It is widely believed to have anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-inflammatory properties that seem to make it special. Many cat owners wonder about coconut oil for cats, is it harmful? Is it beneficial? How can we use it to help our cats out? How do you even give it to your cat? We check out some of the interesting ways coconut oil may benefit your cat and some of the potential pitfalls to watch out for.